Friday 5 August 2016

Negru Vodă (Transsylvania Phoenix, 1972)

Transsylvania Phoenix (or simply Phoenix) were a stunning crossover band born in Romania during the early '60s and always ready to explore new musical paths. This long track titled "Negru Vodă" (a legendary Romanian king) has some hard rock solos, a symphonic architecture, many folk references, a strong bluesy foundation and a lot of other good things in it. It comes from "Cei ce ne-au dat nume" ("Those who have given us names", more or less), the first full-length LP by the band, folllowing a long series of singles and EPs.


This album also included a suite dealing with the four seasons.
Highly recommended too.

The track filled the third side of the original double album. The folkish violin (then guitar) riff is a catchy one, but the variations and the sung melodies are also worth our attention and so are the vocal improvisations. When I come across such interesting and beautiful songs coming from all the Countries that usually have a reduced impact on the international rock scene, I wonder how many other masterpieces we didn't even hear of...

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